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Making Maui Shine

For the past few weeks, I've shared ongoing conversations with artistic creators on their craft and contribution to Maui's burgeoning performing arts scene. Long revered institutions are essential in making live entertainment significant on Maui, but it is the constant influx of talent that makes it thrive."It's the classic comic and the showgirl story," said John Padon, co-producer of the all-new King Kamehameha Komedy Klub in Waikapu and former owner of the four-time Best of Las Vegas Award-winning Sin City Comedy at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.Padon's wife, Dejah, a Maui ...

‘Side Shows’ a chance to shine

"It's a farce that is way over the top," said "Breaking the Chain" director Vinnie Linares of one of the many short one-act plays to be performed this weekend at Seabury Hall Performing Arts' annual "Side Shows.""Even though this is the 21st year of doing this one-act festival, we still have new scripts all the time," said festival co-director Todd Van Amburgh. "This year, half the scripts are new. This is Seabury's big high school play in the sense that this is the play where we cast everyone who tries out. Every year, besides having a few plays written by students, we also have a few ...

Acting theoretics

In island life, we like to believe that our art and music scene, the culinary world and our theater is an adjunct of metropolitan art or Broadway. It isn't, but Broadway shows such as the multi-Tony Award-nominated phenomenon "Hamilton" evolve from off-Broadway venues before achieving greatness.For some on Maui, it is the other way around, leaving Mainland successes in theater or dance for the simplicity of contributing to and developing Maui's emerging art scene."I love variety and I love to try new things," said Rick Scheideman, who continues his one-man shows at the Pioneer Inn in ...

SEASON TO MOVE

With theater productions considerably sparse over the next two months, dance now grabs the spotlight with several upcoming weekends of performances ranging from contemporary to classical and starring Maui's most aspiring and most experienced.Over the past two weekends, I have witnessed the talented youth dancers of the Seabury Hall Dance Program in addition to Halau Na Lei Kaumaka O Uka, Alexander Academy of Performing Arts, B-boy Alex "Kid Karma" Hutaff-Bautista, the Maui Academy of Performing Arts and Zenshin Daiko, all in performance in the Common Ground Dance Festival at ...

Still Smokin’

"It's a part of our DNA," Cheech Marin replied. I had asked why the great comedy teams like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis never reunited, but he and partner Tommy Chong did. "We were apart for so long, but when we decided to work together again, 20 years felt like 20 seconds. We know each other so well and we fell right back into our comedy rhythm."Cheech and Chong began in improv comedy, influenced heavily by Chicago's Second City. Marin immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in the late 1960s. I asked if he and Chong were dodging the draft."Just me, Tommy's ...

Top-notch actors wow in ‘Inherit the Wind’ drama

On several occasions, I have mentioned that any performing arts company that would choose to present my preferred style of theater on a regular basis would eventually go out of business. There will be no long lines to witness the courtroom drama "Inherit the Wind," yet it is beyond a doubt the finest local theater offering as the 2015-16 season nears its conclusion.Like two world-class boxers, Steven Dascoulias as Matthew Harrison Brady and Don Carlson as Henry Drummond battle each other toe to toe in a display of abundant talent rarely seen on Maui. These two award-worthy performances ...